Over 250 Marin County residents have completed the Building Healthy Communities survey since July 2007. On April 7, 2008 community partners started a conversation and offered their input on two important questions, crucial to the development of the action platform. Community dialogues are underway inviting community residents to answer these questions in a group setting, over three sessions. If you were unable to make the 4/7 meeting, or would like to continue the conversation online before the next partners’ convening in July, here’s your chance. The first question is:
What do you believe are the 2-3 most important issues that must be addressed to improve the health and quality of life of your community?
What community leaders are saying:
- Lack of non-toxic, safe housing and affordable housing
- External and internal chemical pollution
- Lack of universal health care
- Lack of supportive, unified infrastructure with effective policies of change
- Lack of a multi-pronged approach to education
- Lack of affordable, available and accessible transportation
- Lack of access to affordable healthy foods
- Lack of implementation of land use policies that promote, rather than discourage physical activity
Have your say! Leave your comments below.
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I believe that a sustainable wage for people who work has to be the most important in order to meet the higher food, health and housing demands in Marin County. There has to be a commitment by city and county officials to recognize and acknowledge the diverse community that works and lives here and to provide the representation needed to make sure that their voices are heard. This city and county cannot afford to ignore that the vast majority of the future generation here will be young, Spanish-speaking and composed of larger families.
Thank you for your comments Maria. Here’s a link to additional information about employment statistics in the county and the growth trends in the types of jobs that are driving our local economy: http://www.calmis.ca.gov/file/cosnaps/marinsnap.pdf.
In our neighborhood, a vocal minority of people have become very influential with the city council and always seem to get their way. I’d like to see the greater community have an equal voice in community issues. For example, when the idea of adding affordable assisted living to our community (Mercy Housing) came up, the vocal minority immediately complained and it was shot down before the larger community even knew about it. How do we get input from the busy working families and “regular” people in our community?
Another issue is our required dependency on cars, and lack of viable alternatives for transportation.
Behind all the issues is a deeper issue: the people who “have” not caring about the “have-nots”. The Joy of Learning center is calling for a change in consciousness, from “Let them eat cake” to “let’s love our neighbors as ourselves”. When this shift occurs, the problems of affordable housing, lack of transportation and medical care, etc., will disappear.
As Jesus said in the Bible, “Even as you do unto the least of mine, you do it unto Me.” How would we treat Him today if he were an undocumented, unemployed Hispanic worker in the Canal?
Has there been any anti-drug campaigns in our area? If not, it would be great to have an anti-drug campaign for the Canal area. Many times we hear cars honking their horns incessantly until they get a response from the dealers. The tennis shoes hung over the telephone wire lines are signs for the drug buyer that there is a dealer in the nearby area. The residents and tenants need to become educated on the dangers of taking and selling drugs. Neighbors need to come together to rally for no tolerance on drug trafficking in our community. It would be great to have anti-drug flyers up on telephone poles and meetings at the community centers for our war on drugs.
Thank you for all of your work and good luck in your future endeavors.
Best,
Alexandra